Square Enix “Working Full Throttle” on Kingdom Hearts 3

July 3, 2014Written by Jason Dunning

Aside from knowing that it won’t be out in 2014, we don’t know much about when Kingdom Hearts 3 will actually release. While he wouldn’t narrow things down for us, Kingdom Hearts HD Remix 2.5 Co-Director Tai Yasue did say to Game Informer, “We’ve been working full throttle [on Kingdom Hearts 3]. It’s moving along. We structured our team in a way that development of 2.5 doesn’t impede Kingdom Hearts 3. I’m actually very excited about Kingdom Hearts 3.”

Staying vague, Yasue talked about how “there’s a lot of stuff we have never ever done before” in the game, and “there’s a lot that’s the same, but there’s a lot that’s changed.”

In the trailer shown off last year (above), Sora was seen using Disney attractions as special attacks. Not committing to any more than the ones we saw, Yasua said, “For the rides, we want it to be very varied. For anything in Kingdom Hearts, there’s a lot. For those attractions, we want different types, many types, so we’re thinking about that.”

As for the worlds in Kindgom Hearts 3, it will be a mix of old and new ones, with different categories, because Square Enix wants to have them varied. When asked about the potential of getting Pixar, Marvel, or Lucasfilm worlds in the game, Yasue wouldn’t confirm anything:

Everyone wants to know. I can’t say at this moment, but news will come out about the worlds. There’s a lot of Disney content that’s new and coming out and we’re considering which ones to use, which would be good from a gameplay perspective. This is not an announcement or anything, but personally I enjoyed watching Frozen. It was magical: the stories, the songs, the ice expressions.

Yasue also addressed the Kingdom Hearts 3 E3 2014 absence, which was due to the fact that “it was the year of 2.5 for us. When we were first planning out Kingdom Hearts 3, we wanted 1.5 and 2.5 out in a timely fashion, so everyone would really get an understanding of the story. And so we really wanted to push 2.5. Making teasers and trailers really does require a lot of work, and we just wanted to get the development moving along quickly on Kingdom Hearts 3, so this year we really focused on 2.5.”

For the future, Square Enix is planning for the events they want to show off Kingdom Hearts 3 next at, but Yasue couldn’t say which ones.